Open Access

Lesley-Ann Mathis, Kathrin Werner, Gerald Schmidt

• Proactive behaviour of in-vehicle voice assistants is seen as key to develop increasingly intelligent and interactive systems. One of the main questions for proactive voice assistants is when opportune moments for engaging the user are. We present a driving simulator study (N = 32) investigating different situations of proactive interaction during an automated ride. Based on previous findings for opportune moments of interaction during manual driving, the study’s focus is on evaluating the influence of driving situations and the performance of a non-driving related activity (NDRA) on the opportuneness of a proactive interaction. The quantitative and qualitative findings show that most situations do not impact the opportuneness of a proactive interaction during an automated ride. However, an extreme traffic situation with an approaching emergency vehicle is considered as inopportune. Travel time and the current state of the user should also be considered for the selection of an opportune moment. A validation of the results in a real road driving study is planned.